Judge calls on schoolgirl killer Leslie Camilleri to reveal more about the murder of Prue Bird

NOTORIOUS Bega schoolgirl killer Leslie Camilleri has been urged by a judge to "exercise his conscience" and reveal where murdered teen Prue Bird is buried.

Triple killer Camilleri has pleaded guilty to murdering 13-year-old Prue after she was taken from her Glenroy home on February 2, 1992.

Despite the plea, Camilleri is contesting the prosecution’s version of the facts and circumstances surrounding the death.

Today the Supreme Court heard that a former associate of a man implicated in the disappearance told police she awoke semi-naked and drugged in a backyard shed beside Prue, who was sobbing for her mother.

The now dead criminal Mark McConville’s former associate, who can only be referred to as Witness K, told detectives the violent drug trafficker would often lock her in the shed.

The Supreme Court was told that the girl told Witness K her name was Prue and that she had been taken from her home and told that if she “f---ed up” she would be “knocked straight away”.

Camilleri claims he came across Prue in her street while hunting for one of two men who sexually abused him earlier in his life and, after asking Prue a question and being “told where to go”, he grabbed her, choked her and later stuffed her body in a refrigerator at a rubbish tip.

Jenny Bird continues her fight for justice for her girl. Picture: Craig Borrow

Ms Williams said the Crown was not relying on “the Russell St bombing motive”; a motive previously alleged in court suggesting Prue was snatched and killed as payback for two of her relatives testifying against the men who carried out the fatal 1986 bombing of the Russell Street police complex.

McConville, a former associate of cold-blooded hitman Rodney Collins, was convicted of murdering couple Ray and Dorothy Abbey in 1987 - but was acquitted at retrial.

Prue’s body has never been found, despite Camilleri’s alleged confessions and maps being drawn as to her whereabouts.

“This man (Camilleri) does have a tendency to pick up young girls and does have a tendency to kill them,” Ms Williams said today of the man serving life without parole for the shocking murders of raped Bega schoolgirls Lauren Barry and Nichole Collins.

Prue’s long-suffering mother, Jenny Bird, sobbed in court as Ms Williams read through the Crown’s opening and outlined what relevant witnesses are expected to say in evidence.

Ms Williams said Witness K overheard conversations between McConville and Camilleri in which they discussed “knocking off” a Glenroy girl who was a Crown witness, before scouting streets in a car and looking at a particular high school.

The court heard Witness K told police that the girl in the shed who said her name was Prue “kept saying she wanted to go home to her mother”.

Ms Williams said Witness K later identified the girl as Prue Bird after being shown images of Prue.

The court heard a person named Witness L had undergone hypnotherapy to provide police with a description of last seeing Prue in the back of a car yelling “help me!” and banging her hands against the window.

The court was told a car seen in the area at the time matched that of McConville’s blue hatchback.

Ms Williams outlined how several witnesses had told police of jail conversations with Camilleri during which he made differing admissions about how he killed Prue, including raping and burying her.

He told others he accidentally strangled her before dumping her in a fridge at a tip near Kananook railway station, while another version had Prue’s remains lying next to a man Camilleri murdered for sexually abusing him at an earlier age.

Camilleri, who sat in the dock with eyes closed for most of today’s proceedings, told police he acted alone when he killed Prue.

Before adjourning the case for the day, Justice Curtain suggested Camilleri “exercise his conscience” and reveal where Prue’s remains were buried.

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